


I love you game

by Violet_Witch



Series: Everbody lies in the cave [3]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DC Comics, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, M/M, and flirting, just pure fun and games, lot's of blushing, oh and everyone's gay, the i love you game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-20 18:03:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17027469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Violet_Witch/pseuds/Violet_Witch
Summary: When a Bat turns eighteen, shenanigans are bound to occur. All Tim can hope for is that no one gets seriously injured or hooks up. Unless it’s him. Kon does look really good today…





	I love you game

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a companion piece/epilogue to my fic Because of You (the first one in this series) but it can be read stand alone.

Okay. So. Maybe an eighteenth birthday party for a teenage superhero with a bunch of other college age superheros on an offsite location with zero adult super vision _might_ have been a bad idea. Who would have thought?

In all fairness, there was no alcohol or drugs, and Nightwing was there. But Tim, Babs, _and_ Dick had been conspiring for the last month to ensure this party stayed a complete secret. Invite only. Their mentors would never know about what happened in that warehouse.

Said warehouse was courtesy of the Outlaws who had procured it after a drug bust and offered it as a location for the party. It was nice in a far-away-from-civilians-where-no-one-could-hear-you-scream-if-you-were-axe-murdered kind of way. And even Dick had to admit it was the perfect location for a superpowered party.

Bart, Jaime, and Cassie collaborated to decorate the pace, while Steph and Cass provided a virtual mountain of food and enough drinks to fill the Dead Sea.

Overall it was the perfect set up for a lot of mistakes to be made in one night. Tim had already claimed dibs on all blackmail material as his present from all of them. He’d even brought his camera for just that purpose.

Naturally before all that had been decided on, they’d set the guest list.

They’d kept the guest list pretty exclusive, with a strict eighteen and up age limit. In total, it was fourteen people, or as Kon put it, the perfect number to raise a little hell with.

For the first hour or two, it was surprisingly subdued. Cliques were hard to overcome, but it proved to be an easy problem for Tim to solve.

A comment to Bart about the kind of techy stuff Roy was working on. A shove in the right direction to get Cassie over her hero worship and actually having a conversation with Kori. Pointing out to Jason and Kon in an incredibly subtle way that once Jay got over wanting to kill him for touching Tim, they actually had a lot in common; daddy issues, anger issues, psychotic mass murderer bringing them to life with the intent to use them as a weapon only to be foiled by the power of love(they both refused to admit that bit about the power of love, but neither could argue the rest of it).

It wasn’t long before Jaime joined Roy and Bart, offering Kahji’s two cents on Roy’s latest weapons. Kaldur joined Cassie in low key fangirling over Kori (who knew?) but Kori fangirled right back. Artemis slid smoothly and silently into Jason and Kon’s muted conversation, adding her own daddy and anger issues to the mix.

Dick flitted between all of them like the social butterfly that he was, joining every conversation but never stayed more than a few minutes. 

From there things got easier. And Tim was able to sit back with all three Batgirls and laugh as they watched new friendships form.

Then suddenly Roy was doing active demonstrations, (Why the hell had he brought weapons to a par- nevermind. Tim wasn’t even surprised.) an arm wrestling competition had started, and Kori was doing her damnedest to get makeup on Kaldur before the night was over.

Then suddenly Steph had a stroke of genius.

“LET’S PLAY THE I LOVE YOU GAME,” she shouted, suddenly jumping up from her spot curled against her girlfriend’s side.

Many things could be said about Steph, but she was good at drawing a crowd, in seconds all conversations ground to a halt and they were looking at her.

“What’s that?” Artemis asked.

Steph smiled mischievously. “Better than truth or dare, I can tell you that.”

No one was sure if she could deliver on that promise, but they came over anyway, forming a loose circle to hear her out.

Waiting until she had her audience’s full attention before she spoke, Steph said, “Okay, so basically two people at a time, and you say the most mushy things you can think of until one of you blushes. Hence the name, ‘I love you’. The person who doesn’t blush is the winner and advances in the bracket.”

Uneasy looks were shared. “Sounds simple,” someone offered.

“Yup.” Steph popped the p. “Who’s in?”

“I volunteer Kaldur as tribute! Dude never blushes, he’ll win for sure.” Artemis said.

The atlantean frowned. “This seems like a bad idea.”

There was no better sales pitch than that. A few minutes later, ten of them were organized into a bracket.

Babs opted out, because it was ‘the dumbest idea she’d ever heard, and with the intel she had on all of them, did they really want her trying to make them blush?’. No one tried to argue with that. They all agreed that if Dick participated, they wouldn’t be able to look him in the eye for their next briefing, so he decided to judge instead. Cass and Kori both just smiled and everyone agreed they could choose not to participate, although for different reasons.

Everyone else in attendance either agreed or was bullied and goaded into it.

First up was Steph, since it was her idea, and she would be going against Kon.

Jason facetiously dubbed it the ‘Tim’s wet dream’ round. Tim chose not to validate that with a response.

“Dick, you do realize we’re both currently in relationships _and_ batting for the other team right?” Steph pointed out as she sat down across from Kon at the table they’d set up.

He just shrugged. “You suggested this, might as well make it a challenge.”

Sighing, Steph decided to take the obvious approach first even thought it totally wasn’t going to work.

Dipping her chin so her hair fell forward in a way she knew men found attractive, she looked at him through her eyelashes and said, “I love you Kon!”

Kon raised one unimpressed eyebrow. “My turn?”

Steph huffed, but nodded.

Thinking for a moment before speaking, Kon started, “So you and Cass huh? Must have been one hell of a story. You were in China for what… six months? More? You left as friends, but you came back as a couple.” Steph nodded warily. “So- and this is just a shot in the dark- that would mean you were probably attracted to Cass for some time while she was training you before the two of you actually got together.”

A quick look at Cass showed her head tilted and her face open with curiosity.

“Ummmm, no comment,” Steph tried, not red yet, but not looking near as at ease as she had a moment before.

“So it must have been quite a relief when you finally got together. Did you finally give in to it and kiss her, or did she kiss you first?”

Steph was looking at Cass now, and even though she didn’t respond, she was biting her lip.

“Or maybe you both moved at once? Adrenaline post workout and you just couldn’t help yourselves anymore? That first time, did you do it right there on the mats? Or did you just fantasize about it?”

And now Steph was blushing. Big time.

“That was a dirty dirty trick,” she said glaring at Kon’s with her cheeks dusted a delicate pink that was only growing by the minute as she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Kon smiled. “Gonna call it ref?”

Dick snapped out of whatever shock he was in and declared Kon the winner.

The half kryptonian skipped over to his boyfriend who immediately dragged him into a kiss. “That was so hot. Why was that fucking hot?” Tim murmured against his lips.

“Everything I do is hot,” Kon shot back.

“Oh we are so going to revisit this later… ”

Next up was Roy v Kaldur.

“Like I said, Kaldur never blushes,” Artemis said.

“Wanna put your money where your mouth is, Legolas?” Roy asked.

Artemis beamed. “Money? I’ll bet you my favorite arrow.”

“Deal.”

Kaldur rolled his eyes.

“I love you Roy,” he deadpanned.

“How ‘bout you buy me dinner first fish boy?” Roy responded, resting his chin on his hands and batting his eyelashes.

Kaldur rolled his eyes again. “I hardly think your flirting will have any affect on me. I’ve become desensitized over years of suffering your presence.”

Completely undeterred as always, Roy hummed in agreement. “True, so how about instead I tell you a story?” Kaldur was immediately on edge. “Once upon a time there was a young, impressionable, but frighteningly handsome archer and a drop dead gorgeous, but all business no pleasure Atlantean. One day a knight gave them a mission. He told them to go to Budapest and do some recon. It was a long stake out, covering many days and many nights, so naturally the pair had to fill their time. So the archer suggested that maybe they could-”

“Stop!” Kaldur was blushing furiously. “Fine, you win, just- stop.”

Dick blinked in surprise, “Uh… Roy wins.”

“Close your mouth or you’ll catch flies,” Roy said smugly as he passed Artemis. “I’ll pick up _my_ arrow later.”

He stopped beside Jason, beaming at his friend and holding his hand up for a high five, but Jason just rolled his eyes to the ceiling with a few muttered choice words and ignored him.

“Uh… Tim and Jaime next I guess.” Dick said, still preoccupied with trying to figure out what Roy had been talking about. Spoiler alert, he wasn’t going to succeed.

Jaime pecked Bart’s lips before sitting down across from Tim.

“So uh, when did you find out you liked Kon?” Jaime asked awkwardly, trying to emulate Kon’s success with Steph.

“Only started acknowledging it a week or two before we got together, but actually a few months? Hard to say. Try again,” Tim answered with a perfectly straight face.

Jaime pursed his lips. “Okay, what was your first thought when you met him?”

“‘Damn photos do not do justice to that ass’ followed immediately by ‘shit I’m screwed’ and then ‘how much can he lift- for tactical purposes, of course’.”

Jaime blinked and Tim considered he might be able to win by just continuing to be honest, but where was the fun in that?

“My turn, when was the first time you thought of Bart _like that_?”

“Uh… ”

“Was it when you saw him wearing his costume? Do you have a thing for the costumes? Or do you prefer civies? I hear Bart can rock the punk look, although based on his build I think he’d look pretty good in a maid get up too.”

Jaime stared resolutely at the ceiling, saying nothing.

“Tim wins,” Dick announced, leaning slightly forward to see the dusting of pink on Jaime’s cheeks.

Tim laughed, bounding over to high five his boyfriend and shooting Bart an apologetic glance that proved unnecessary when he saw the speedster staring thoughtfully at Jaime. Tim didn’t want to think about what he may have just started.

“Okay, Jason and Artemis.” Dick announced, subtly kicking Jaime under the table to shake him out of it.

“Oh you are so going down, Clint Eastwood.” Artemis said, fully recovered from her shock with Roy and ready to kick ass.

“In your dreams, blond Katniss,” Jason shot back, cracking his knuckles as he sat down. “We should probably tell the kiddies to cover their ears don’t you think?”

“They’re big boys and girls, they signed up for this.”

“Oh I don’t think anyone signed up for _you and me._ ”

“Is that a challenge or a promise?”

“Depends, wanna buy me dinner first?”

They were both leaning forward and there was only a couple of inches space left between them.

Artemis scoffed. “You wouldn’t make it through the appetizer before you were asking for it.”

Jason gasped in offense. “What kind of girl do you think I am Arty?”

“Not sure, why don’t we find out?”

“That’s it- you. Me. Bed. Now.”

“Oh wouldn’t you just love that Hood, I bet you wouldn’t even last thirty seconds-”

“I’ve been told I have excellent aim, I’d only need thirty seconds.”

“Care to put your money where your mouth is?”

“Oooh I’m sure you’d love to have my mouth on your-”

Dick slammed his hands on the table between them, blushing furiously. “Okay! That’s enough of that. You’re both disqualified.”

“For what?!” Jason asked, falling back into his chair, although he looked more smug than angry.

Dick shook his head. “Well clearly that was going nowhere because neither of you have any shame and you may not have beaten each other, but you beat half of everyone else.”

They looked around. He was right. Without even realizing it the whole room had been leaning slightly towards them, drawn in by the effortless, rapid-fire flirting like it was a particularly interesting tennis match. Most of them were blushing.

Jason and Artemis high fived, both laughing smugly.

“Next up, Bart and Cassie.”

“Wait what.”

Apparently Cassie hadn’t been following well enough to realize that was the next pairing.

“No, no, no- that’s not gonna work,” Cassie protested as Tim pushed her towards the table where Bart was already seated.

She sat down uneasily, gesturing animatedly to Bart and looking at Dick imploringly. “Oh come on! How am I supposed to flirt with Bart? He’s like my kid brother! Or my sweet cinnamon roll son!” Bart was sinking steadily lower in his seat. “That’d be like you trying to flirt with Tim! It’s just gross and wrong.” Her nose scrunched up as she thought about it. “Plus, I’ve been captaining the Bluepulse ship since day one.”

“What do you want me to do about that?” Dick asked amusedly.

“I don’t know! Give me someone else! I could flirt the hell out of Steph, and I know lots of embarrassing things about Tim but Bart’s my baby! I can’t embarrass him it just doesn’t feel ri-”

“Cassie wins.”

“I- what?” She looked at Dick in confusion, but he just nodded to Bart.

He’d buried his face in his hands, but it still wasn’t enough to cover his blush.

“Certainly not the conventional way to go about it, but he’s blushing, so, you win.”

“Oh. Sweet.” Cassie stood up, practically skipping to the side lines where Kon and Tim were doubled over laughing. She hit both of the on the back of the head.

Bart stood up and immediately fell against Jaime, burying his still burning face in his chest. His voice came out muffled when he said, “Thank you for being so tall.”

As Jaime laughed, the Blue Beetle armour formed briefly around his arms, encircling Bart, before vanishing into the Scarab again.

“Round two! Roy v Kon.”

The two OG young justice members sat at the table across from each other.

“Think you can handle all this?” Kon asked.

“Don't know. Can’t wait to find out.”

Kon smirked. “You can have the first shot.”

Roy sighed. “Like I need it, but I’ll accept your preemptive surrender.” Their audience oohed. Flashing them a cocky grin, Roy leaned forward to place his head on one hand and smile at Kon. “I really, _really_ like you Kon.” If heart eyes could make a noise, Roy’s voice was it.

“Puh-lease. Try harder.”

Roy pouted, “You’re gonna hurt my feelings honey bear.”

“Roy, this is stupid.”

“Are you just scared? I promise I'll be gentle”

“Roy-”

“Are you forfeiting? Cause I accept-”

In one blur of movement, Kon stood up, reaching out to grab Roy’s collar and drag him forward until they were nose to nose. “Babe you wouldn’t last ten seconds in bed with me,” he said lowly, winking at Roy before he let go.

Roy was left hanging there, his adam's apple bobbing as he said, “Okay. Yeah. I give in. You win.”

Dick was so busy laughing, he was barely able to declare Kon the victor.

“Tim v Cassie,” he wheezed between peels of laughter.

Once they were seated, Tim smiled playfully. “So are we going old fashioned, or who has the best blackmail.”

“Do I look like I want to air my dirty laundry in front of this lot of heathens?”

“Fair, but we’re both batting for the other team so that’s not going to work very well either,” Tim pointed out.

“I could always tease you about Kon until you break.”

“That hardly seems fair, you aren’t dating anyone for me to tease back!”

“Exactly! So I’d actually have a chance.”

Tim pursed his lips to hide his laughter. “You know, I’m already in a relationship with Kon. As someone with a crush, you are far more susceptible to blushing than I am.”

“Woah, woah, woah, back it up. What makes you think I have a crush?” Cassie asked, raising her eyebrows.

Tim thought about it. “Well it’s not anyone in this room. I thought maybe Kori, but I think that’s more hero worship and respect.”

“Smart.”

“So, not someone I in particular know all that well, but that does leave a lot of options.”

“So that’s how you wanna play this?” Cassie asked. “Guess in check about my alleged crush until I blush?”

He smirked. “No need for the guessing, I’ll skip right to checking, thanks.”

Leaning forward he whispered something in her ear. “Can’t blame you. She looks good in a skirt, but won’t that make us family?”

Cassie blushed. “Uh… distantly?”

Sitting back in his seat, Tim waited for the verdict.

“Tim wins.”

Shaking his hand in an overly formal way, Cassie sighed. “I am _so_ getting revenge for this later.”

“I wouldn’t expect any less of you.”

He made to leave but Dick stopped him. “Your mental math is off baby bro. Next round’s finals. You v Kon.”

A beat of silence followed his words, then a whole lot of jeering.

Tim sunk back into his seat and waited for his boyfriend to sit across from him.

He didn’t have to wait long before Steph happily escorted Kon over with a strong grip on his shoulder and pushed him into his seat.

“Hold on, that’s not fair!” Artemis called. “They’re already dating!”

Dick shrugged. “Don’t shoot the ref. That’s just the way the bracket worked out. Maybe if you hadn’t gotten yourself disqualified in your pissing contest with Jason you would have beaten Kon and they wouldn’t be the finalists.”

A louder round of protests started.

“They have a point Dick, it’ll just end in a stalemate.”

Dick considered calling it off, save them all a repeat of Jason and Artemis, but Tim didn’t look defeated or outraged, he looked smug.

Dick thought it over for a minute, then decided _what the hell._ “Nope. I want to see how this plays out.”

Smiling almost apologetically at his boyfriend, Kon offered, “Might as well try, right?”

Tim didn’t look the least bit apologetic. “Do or do not there is no try.”

Same as he did with Cassie, Tim leaned over until his lips brushed Kon’s ear.

It was just a lucky coincidence no one else in that room had the super hearing to catch what he said, but it may or may not have involved motorcycles and Kon’s ass.

Kon blushed.

Laughing at his boyfriend, Tim kissed his cheek and pulled away.

“And the birthday boy wins!”

This party was such a great idea.

**Author's Note:**

> I have now met my budapest reference quota for this series.


End file.
